Karen Vaucher spent twenty-seven years in New York City and East Hampton, New York, operating several French bistros and a gourmet store and catering facility. She now lives with her husband, Jacques, on an eighty-acre ranch in the Hill Country of Texas, where she sells herbs, spices, black peppercorns from Madagascar, and sea salts. In addition, they raise goats, llamas, and chickens.

Sylvester Starr is based on her experiences as a summer renter of a small island in the Thimble Islands of Connecticut.